20th Century Gino Sarfatti Chandelier Mod. 2109/24 in White for Arteluce, 1960s
About the Item
- Creator:Arteluce (Manufacturer),Gino Sarfatti (Author)
- Dimensions:Height: 33.08 in (84 cm)Diameter: 53.15 in (135 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Voltage:220-240v
- Lampshade:Included
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Turin, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU5450236256712
Gino Sarfatti
That a spiky, futuristic chandelier named “Sputnik,” which was highly suggestive of the Soviet satellite of the same name, designed by an Italian engineer could predate the space age and the satellite’s launch by a few decades is the stuff of legend. But in 1939, Venetian-born Gino Sarfatti channeled his obsession with light and expert engineering skills into a design so bold it predicted the future. He would go on to design around 700 lighting products in his lifetime — each table lamp, wall light, pendant and chandelier superb and unorthodox in shape.
Sarfatti’s singular focus on creating opulent lighting designs that were rational in their use of resources makes him one of the most innovative lighting designers in history. He was studying to be an aeronautical engineer at the University of Genoa when his family’s financial troubles led him to drop out and move to Milan to help. During this time, he built a lamp for a friend using a coffee machine’s electric components and a glass vase. This exercise sparked his fascination with lighting, and he went on to found Arteluce in 1939. What followed was a period of working with skilled artisans and tinkering with materials instead of sketching. The self-taught designer soon established himself as a creator of provocative, sculptural luxury lighting. Through the company, he collaborated with some of the 20th century’s most influential designers, such as Vittoriano Viganò, who worked on Arteluce lighting between 1946 and 1960. In the 1950s and ’70s, Franco Albini, Franca Helg, Ico Parisi and Massimo Vignelli all contributed designs.
Sarfatti used resources mindfully and injected functionality into everything he designed. His light fixtures were lightweight, easy to take apart and reassemble and could be affordably repaired. This marriage of utilitarianism and glamour lent Sarfatti’s designs a clean, minimal yet arresting splendor, based on their graphical forms and construction.
After World War II, Sarfatti embraced new wiring technologies and materials like plexiglass, such as his 1972 project with Carlo Mollino that filled the Teatro Regio in Turin with hundreds of plexiglass pipes. In 1973, Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS. His foresight, invention and fearlessness as a designer are revered to this day.
Find a collection of vintage Gino Sarfatti lighting now on 1stDibs.
Arteluce
The lighting maker Arteluce was one of the companies at the heart of the creative explosion in postwar Italian design. The firm’s founder and guiding spirit, Gino Sarfatti (1912–85), was an incessant technical and stylistic innovator who almost single-handedly reinvented the chandelier as a modernist lighting form.
Sarfatti attended the University of Genoa to study aeronautical engineering but was forced to drop out when his father’s company went out of business. His mechanical instincts led him to turn his attention to lighting design — and he founded Arteluce as a small workshop in Milan in 1939. Sarfatti’s father was a Jew, so the family fled to Switzerland in 1943, but after the war — largely thanks to Sarfatti’s insistence on efficiency of design and manufacture — Arteluce quickly established itself as a top firm. Though Sarfatti continued as chief designer through the 1950s and ’60s, he also enlisted other designers such as Franco Albini and Massimo Vignelli to contribute work. Sarfatti sold Arteluce to FLOS — a rival Italian lighting maker — in 1973 and retired to pursue a more traditional avocation: collecting and dealing rare postage stamps.
Sarfatti is regarded by many collectors as a pioneer of minimalist design. He pared down his lighting works to their essentials, focusing on practical aspects such as flexibility of use. His most famous light, the 2097 chandelier, is a brilliant example of reductive modernist design, featuring a central cylinder from which branches numerous supporting fixtures extending like spokes on a wheel. Similarly, his 566 table lamp is a simple canister, able to be raised or lowered on a stem, holding a half-chrome bulb. Despite the marked functionality of his designs, Sarfatti did have a sprightly side: His 534 table lamp, with its cluster of rounded enameled shades, resembles a vase full of flowers, the Sputnik chandelier (model 2003) was inspired by fireworks and the brightly colored plastic disks of the 2072 chandelier look like lollipops. No matter the style, Sarfatti concentrated first and foremost on the character of light created — and any Arteluce lamp is a modernist masterpiece.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Torino, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Chandelier Mod. 2097/30, 1960sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinOne of the most significant figures in the world of Italian design of the second half of the 20th century was Gino Sarfatti. Venetian by birth and Genoese by training, Sarfatti becam...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti Set of 3 Wall Lamps Mod. 238/2 for Arteluce, 1960sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinGino Sarfatti was an Italian designer and businessman born in 1912 in Venice. After studying aeronaval engineering in Genova, he founded the Arteluce company in 1939 in Milan. Its pu...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti Adjustable Wall Lamp Mod. 194 for Arteluce, 1950sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinThe Italian designer and businessman Gino Sarfatti was born in 1912 in Venice. After studying aeronaval engineering in Genova, he founded the Arteluce company in 1939 in Milan. His w...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass, Metal
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti Lighting Wall Mirror mod. 51B for Arteluce, 70sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinGino Sarfatti was an Italian designer and businessman born in 1912 in Venice. After studying aeronaval engineering in Genova, he founded the Arteluce company in 1939 in Milan. Its pu...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
MaterialsAluminum
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti Set of 6 Wall Lamps Mod. 36 for Arteluce, 1950sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinGino Sarfatti was an Italian designer and businessman born in 1912 in Venice. After studying aeronaval engineering in Genova, he founded the Arteluce company in 1939 in Milan. Its purpose is lighting fixtures, lighting applications, furniture components as well as the study and manufacture of furniture. He won many international awards, including, in 1954 and 1955, the Compasso d'oro, with models 559 and 1055. In December 1973, the year he won the Gold Medal at the 15th Triennale, he sold the company, which is no longer in operation today. Here we have set of 6 wall lamps...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- 20th Century Gino Sarfatti Arteluce Set of 3 Floor Lamps Mod. 1073 '50sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Turin, TurinOne of the most significant figures in the world of Italian design of the second half of the 20th century was Gino Sarfatti. Venetian by birth and Genoese by training, Sarfatti became Milanese in 1935, first collaborating with the lighting company Lumen and then founding Arteluce Società Anonima A.L. It was, however, the terrible period of racial laws and it was therefore necessary to wait until the end of the war for the company to begin full-scale production. In 1949, a factory was opened in Milan. It was here that Sarfatti succeeded in interpreting the taste of its customers: if a lamp on display was requested, several pieces of that model were made, without creating prototypes and never exceeding a few dozen copies. The store then became the meeting place for a refined group of architects and decorators who would use Sarfatti's lighting in the furnishings of the Milanese bourgeoisie. Here set of 3 floor...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsAluminum, Iron, Metal
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce Mod.2042/3 Ceiling Lamp, Italy 1960sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Naples, ITRare ceiling lamp model 2042/3 designed by Gino Sarfatti and produced by Arteluce, Italy 1960. This version of the 2042 lamp has a gilded metal frame and 3 glass globes that produce ...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Seguso Bubble Glass 3-Pendant Chandelier for ArteluceBy Arteluce, Gino Sarfatti, Archimede SegusoLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti Seguso Bubble Glass 3-Pendant Chandelier for Arteluce. Executed in 3 hand blown bubbled Seguso glass pendants with brass and bl...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Gino Sarfatti for Arteluce 2097/30 Chandelier, Italy 1960'sBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in Amsterdam, NLGino Sarfatti for Arteluce 2097/30 chandelier. Chromed metal chandelier with 30x E14 light bulbs. Some fittings are a bit damaged trough age, and the met...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Chrome
- Gino Sarfatti '2097' Chandeliers for Arteluce Milano, 1960sBy Gino SarfattiLocated in Greding, DEPair of chandeliers "2097" designed by Gino Sarfatti in 1958 and manufactured by Arteluce Milano. Radially arranged chandelier arms with black wiring around a central cylindrical chr...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsChrome
- 1960s Gino Sarfatti Seguso Bubble Glass Pendant for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, Arteluce, Archimede SegusoLocated in Glendale, CA1960s Gino Sarfatti metal and Seguso glass pendant for Arteluce. Executed in hand blown bubbled Seguso glass and painted metal. The simplicity of Sarfatti's design and the sculptural...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Chandelier #2042/3 by Gino Sarfatti for ArteluceBy Gino Sarfatti, ArteluceLocated in New York, NYThis ceiling light in the model 2042/3 was made by Arteluce Milano, designed by Gino Sarfatti. Condition is excellent and bares the original label of "Arteluce".Category
Mid-20th Century Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal